EP0336714A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Improvements relating to warehousing systems
Assignee: Stockrail International Ltd
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Filing: 1989-04-04
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2009-04-04
Abstract
Abstract The invention provides a warehousing system wherein garments on hangers are suspended from conveyors in equally spaced arrangement and are conveyed continuously from a delivery station to which they are supplied in a first order until they reach a despatch station at which they arrive in another and desired order as dictated by the programming of a control computer. The pitching of the hangers is maintained by scroll conveyors and hangers are discharged from said conveyors by picking or gate devices which are operated by the computer based upon the counting revolutions the scroll conveyors. The system has storage carousel conveyors on which garments waiting to be picked are live stored in that they are continuously moved around the carousel conveyors. A particular sortation device comprises a drive scroll conveyor working in conjunction with a slide bar, a delivery scroll conveyor geared to the drive scroll conveyor and a transfer device to transfer hangers from the delivery scroll conveyor to the slide bar.
Inventors
- 👤 Edward Duce
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-25 11:52
CPC Classifications
B; B65; B65G; B65G1/00; B65G1/02; B65G1/04; B65G1/137; B65G1/1371; B65G33/00; B65G33/02; B65G33/04; B65G2201/00; B65G2201/02; B65G2201/0229
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 20
Claim 1
Independent Claim
174 words
A warehousing system for the suspension and transportation of individual hangers for the support of goods or objects, comprising: a) a hanger delivery area; b) an in-feed conveyor for conveying hangers in spaced relationship from the delivery area; c) a plurality of in-feed conveyor distribution rails leading from the in-feed conveyor to respective storage carousel conveyors, d) a plurality of in-feed control gates in said in-feed conveyor, the operation of which causes hangers to be discharged from said in-feed conveyor to said discharge rails and to said carousel conveyors, each of said carousel conveyors being adapted to support said hangers in spaced relationship as the hangers are transported around an endless path defined by the carousel conveyor, e) picking means associated with each of said carousel conveyors whereby individual hangers may be picked from said carousel conveyors, f) picking control means for controlling the operation of said picking means for the selective picking of individual hangers from the carousel conveyors; and g) an out-feed conveyor onto which said individually picked hangers can be discharged.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
174 words
A warehousing system for the suspension and transportation of individual hangers for the support of goods or objects, comprising: a) a hanger delivery area; b) an in-feed conveyor for conveying hangers in spaced relationship from the delivery area; c) a plurality of in-feed conveyor distribution rails leading from the in-feed conveyor to respective storage carousel conveyors, d) a plurality of in-feed control gates in said in-feed conveyor, the operation of which causes hangers to be discharged from said in-feed conveyor to said discharge rails and to said carousel conveyors, each of said carousel conveyors being adapted to support said hangers in spaced relationship as the hangers are transported around an endless path defined by the carousel conveyor, e) picking means associated with each of said carousel conveyors whereby individual hangers may be picked from said carousel conveyors, f) picking control means for controlling the operation of said picking means for the selective picking of individual hangers from the carousel conveyors; and g) an out-feed conveyor onto which said individually picked hangers can be discharged.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
21 words
A warehousing system according to Claim 1, wherein the out-feed conveyor comprises a conveyor which conveys the hangers in spaced arrangement.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
32 words
A warehousing system according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the in-feed conveyor, carousel conveyor, and out-feed conveyors are each adapted to maintain adjacent hangers supported thereby, spaced by a fixed pitch.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
56 words
A warehousing system according to claim 3, wherein said control gates and picking control means are operated for the discharging or picking of any particular hangers in the system by keeping track of each hanger in the system by counting the number of pitches each hanger is from datum positions of the in-feed conveyor and carousel.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
55 words
A warehousing system according to claim 4, wherein the control gates are under the control of a computer program which enables the operator to distribute all the hangers placed on the in-feed conveyor to be sorted into groups and the respective groups discharged into the respective distribution rails by the automatic operation of said gates.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
34 words
A warehousing system according to any preceding claim wherein each of said in-feed conveyor, carousel conveyor and out-feed conveyor comprises a scroll conveyor and the scroll pitch is common to all of said conveyors.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
41 words
A warehousing system according to any preceding claim wherein the out-feed conveyor has a pluraliuty of out-feed conveyor distribution rails leading from said out-feed conveyor to an output conveyor which leads to said delivery area which also forms a despatch area.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
85 words
A warehousing system according to any preceding claim, wherein the in-feed conveyor comprises a first scroll on which the hangers can be suspended by hooking over the first scroll, a slide bar on which the hangers slide and a second scroll operatively coupled to the slide bar to drive the hangers along the slide bar, and a transfer means enabling the hangers to transfer from the first scroll to the slide bar, said slide bar having sections which are displaceable to form said control gates.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
17 words
A warehousing system according to claim 8, wherein said first and second scrolls have the same pitch.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
59 words
A warehousing system according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the transfer device comprises gearing in the form of gears respectively on the first and second scrolls, said gears being in mesh, and the gear on the first conveyor being intersected by the first scroll thread to enable hangers to be carried through the gearing to the slide bar.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
98 words
A sortation device for a warehousing system in which hangers are conveyed in suspended fashion and in spaced arrangement by warehousing conveyors, said sortation device comprising a first scroll on which the hangers can be suspended by hooking over the first scroll, a slide bar on which the hangers slide and a second scroll operatively coupled to the slide bar to drive the hangers along the slide bar, and a transfer means enabling the hangers to transfer from the first scroll to the slide bar, said slide bar having sections which are displaceable to form said control gates.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
98 words
A sortation device for a warehousing system in which hangers are conveyed in suspended fashion and in spaced arrangement by warehousing conveyors, said sortation device comprising a first scroll on which the hangers can be suspended by hooking over the first scroll, a slide bar on which the hangers slide and a second scroll operatively coupled to the slide bar to drive the hangers along the slide bar, and a transfer means enabling the hangers to transfer from the first scroll to the slide bar, said slide bar having sections which are displaceable to form said control gates.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
17 words
A sortation device according to claim 11, wherein said first and second scrolls have the same pitch.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
59 words
A sortation device according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the transfer device comprises gearing in the form of gears respectively on the first and second scrolls, said gears being in mesh, and the gear on the first conveyor being intersected by the first scroll thread to enable hangers to be carried through the gearing to the slide bar.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
90 words
A sortation device for a warehousing system and wherein a drive scroll operates in conjunction with a computer control system, said drive scroll being operatively coupled to a slide bar for propelling hangers suspended from the bar therealong in spaced relationship, said slide rail having a number of spaced displaceable sections to form control gates to enable hangers to be selectively dropped from the slide bar, said computer control being arranged to drop the hangers from particular pre-programmed control gates dependent upon the number of rotations of the scroll spindle.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
90 words
A sortation device for a warehousing system and wherein a drive scroll operates in conjunction with a computer control system, said drive scroll being operatively coupled to a slide bar for propelling hangers suspended from the bar therealong in spaced relationship, said slide rail having a number of spaced displaceable sections to form control gates to enable hangers to be selectively dropped from the slide bar, said computer control being arranged to drop the hangers from particular pre-programmed control gates dependent upon the number of rotations of the scroll spindle.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
81 words
A sortation device according to claim 14, wherein pre-programming of the computer is such that for example the first hanger which placed on the sortation device and is moved along the slide bar by means of the scroll will be discharged from the slide bar to the gate which is furthest from the position at which the hanger is placed on the sortation device, by virtue of the gate being opened when the scroll has executed a predetermined number of revolutions.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
137 words
A sortation device for a warehousing system in which hangers are conveyed by conveying means in suspended and spaced arrangement, said sortation device comprising a first conveyor means on which hangers are placed, a second conveyor means by which hangers are pushed along a slide bar from which they are suspended, and transfer means for transferring the hangers from the first conveyor to the second conveyor so that they travel on said second conveyor in suspended and equally spaced arrangement, displaceable portions in said slide rail at pre-selected locations thereon to form discharge gates from which the hangers can be discharged from the sortation device, and control means controlling the operation of said control gates for the selective sortation of the hangers based upon the number of pitches which each hanger has travelled from the transfer means.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
137 words
A sortation device for a warehousing system in which hangers are conveyed by conveying means in suspended and spaced arrangement, said sortation device comprising a first conveyor means on which hangers are placed, a second conveyor means by which hangers are pushed along a slide bar from which they are suspended, and transfer means for transferring the hangers from the first conveyor to the second conveyor so that they travel on said second conveyor in suspended and equally spaced arrangement, displaceable portions in said slide rail at pre-selected locations thereon to form discharge gates from which the hangers can be discharged from the sortation device, and control means controlling the operation of said control gates for the selective sortation of the hangers based upon the number of pitches which each hanger has travelled from the transfer means.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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